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Meth has stagering toll on communities

Meade County Times-Tribune - 3/21/2017

NEWELL | Around 40 people attended the Newell meeting of Governor Dennis Daugaard's "Meth Changes Everything" campaign.

The event on Monday night, March 20, was hosted by the Whatever It Takes Coalition with assistance from the local Lion's Club. WIT Director Sabrina Harmon impaneled a slate of knowledgeable professionals to speak to that topic as well as drug and alcohol abuse.

Participating in the panel discussion were: Butte County Chief Deputy/Coroner Gary Brunner, Kara Graveman with the ABC Coalition of Sturgis, Commander Joe Guttierez of the Juvenile Services Center in Rapid City, Kristi Palmer of the South Dakota National Guard, State Law Enforcement Special Agent (unnamed due to privacy issues), Drug Testing Services Lori Lei and State Trooper Nathan Monger of Faith.

Dominique Charleson of Youth Wise in Spearfish started things off giving a presentation about meth and its effects. She asked several questions of the audience and shared staggering information about the costs to the citizens of South Dakota. One shocking thing Charleson shared was that in 2015, 3.8 percent of students in grades 9-12 in South Dakota admitted to having tried meth.

"A person can become addicted the very first time they try meth," said Charleson.

Joe Guttierez said, "Prevention and education are the number one tools to stop this (abuse)."

Butte County States' Attorney Cassie Wendt said that she has watched the problem grow and was surprised to note that the people abusing meth, especially, are not the homeless or jobless but those who are represented as normal, everyday people who try it once and get hooked.

"It's more of the mainstream population," said Wendt.

A comment about the photos representing meth users that people have seen sparked some comment from several of the panel members. They said that the photos are good representations of the changes in meth users' appearances but Palmer issued a word of caution when working with youth.

"I would say tread very lightly when using pictures because they (youth) might know of someone who uses meth and has not shown drastic changes," said Palmer. "Then they think you are lying when you say that it does change the physical appearance."

The program, which was instituted in 2016 by the Governor, is supplied through the South Dakota Department of Social Service. The goal was to promote prevention and provide education on meth and meth use to youth and adults in 100 communities across South Dakota by May of 2017.

In 2015, there were 2,125 meth-related arrests in South Dakota. That is a 40 percent increase from meth-related arrests in 2014. Trooper Monger was involved in taking down a large meth distribution operation in the Faith area recently.

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Kara Graveman, ABC Coalition Director and licensed drug and alcohol counselor shared statistics on what it cost the state of South Dakota for enforcement on alcohol related crimes in the state.

The event also addressed Suicide Prevention and Education opportunities with the True Cost of Alcohol to our County, and Tobacco Prevention information. Graveman's presentation shared the statistic that South Dakota is the number one state for forcible rape cases and most of those cases involved alcohol.

"Of every dollar that we have, only five cents goes to prevention and education. The remaining 95 cents goes to enforcement," said Graveman. "The scary thing is that only 10 percent of the population of South Dakota consumes nearly 80 percent of the alcohol. She gave a little demonstration with 10 people she had picked from the audience, weeding them out with different statistics until she got to the last person representing that 10 percent.

Graveman said 40 to 50 percent of all crimes in South Dakota are alcohol related. Deputy Sheriff Gary Brunner confirmed that and also shared that the 24/7 check-in program has been very successful in helping curtail recidivism.

Harmon shared results of the Newell Youth Risk Survey which was given to students in grades 7 through 12 in November of 2016. More than a quarter of students surveyed in both grades 11 and 12 said they had consumed alcohol in a 30-day period during the survey. More than 68 percent of 10th grade students said they had ridden in a vehicle with a driver who had been drinking or doing drugs and nearly 20 percent of 12th grade students said they had driven a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Information on the Social Host Law was distributed showing the legal consequences of Social Hosting which includes all locations whether it be a private home, car, boat, pasture, camp site, etc. There were also available pamphlets on many illegal drugs, how to identify if someone is using and the consequences and characteristics of the drugs.

Harmon invited anyone interested to come to the WIT meetings or visit her in her office at the school for more information. Her contact info is: 605-381-9136 and Sabrina.harmon@k12.sd.us.